Usable and Interoperable E-Learning Resources Repositories

Abstract

The Web puts a huge number of learning resources within reach of anyone with Internet access. In many cases, these valuable resources are difficult for most users to find in an efficient and effective manner. What makes an e-learning resources repository much more than a portal is the ability to discover a learning object and put it to a new use. The purpose of an e-learning resources repository is not simply safe storage and delivery but the ability of their administration, in terms of updating, identifying, utilizing, sharing and re-using them, which remains a great challenge. Moreover, the various repositories are either closed systems or systems that allow user access only through proprietary interfaces and data formats. In brief, there is lack of interoperability. The aim of this chapter is to present the requirements of an ideal e-learning resources repository that will provide services for covering the aforementioned critical issues. We will also describe such an ideal system could be non-centralized, which is the main difference from all the system that exists today in the WWW. Peer to Peer (P2P) based approaches are more flexible than centralized approaches with several advantages.